Mastodon album ‘catchy not cheesy’

Mastodon’s Troy Sanders says the band managed to be catchy without being cheesy on their latest album.

The singer and bass player says last year’s release Once More ‘Round The Sun is more melodic than much of their previous work and that it was a conscious decision to go for hook-laden songs this time out.

But they were careful not to veer into cheesy territory.

Sanders tells SpazioRock: “We’ve tried to incorporate more melody — not only guitar-wise, but vocal melodies and vocal harmonies and vocal patterns that really are catchy. Like hooks that bring you in and make a song more memorable.

“So we did spend more time and effort on trying to find those right vocal moments for this new record without cheating the song’s music itself.

“You can find vocal patterns that are catchy and meaningful to the song without just being cheesy about it and singing for the sake of not screaming. We’re always trying to be better songwriters, and just continue to evolve and make songs that don’t sound like the last song we wrote.”

Sanders also vows that the band will make sure every record they make is different to the last.

He adds: “Every record that we do is gonna sound different, because we always want to evolve and create our own musical path. And every record will be different.

“We do not wanna write the same record twice. And it’s a musical journey that the four of us are on. And to any fans that we’ve ever had before, we want them to embrace it and grow with us, but we don’t expect people to. We just write what we love, and we love what we write.”

This month, vocalist and guitarist Brent Hinds said he was working on a “cool new Mastodon song” in the studio as the band prepares for the follow-up to Once More ‘Round The Sun.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.